Scratchbord®

I’m delighted to announce that my artwork has just been juried into 2 upcoming annual exhibitions! I am amazed to have two of my  scratchboards chosen for the highly competitive 11th Annual Exhibition of the International Scratchboard Society, to be held in December 2022 in Florida. Also, for the fifth consecutive year, my art will be included in the 54th Annual Open Show of the Oak Ridge (Tennessee) Art Center, held during October and November 2022. Here are the details … Read More

Months ago I set my sights on entering the 2022 International Society of Scratchboard Artists (ISSA) annual exhibition, which will be held in Florida this year. I’ve been exploring new techniques for scratchboard and honing my skills with what has become a favorite media. For this stiff competition, I really wanted to push the envelop, with a large and very detailed artwork. A new challenge! THE INSPIRATION Several times this summer Rick and I have enjoyed boating with good friends … Read More

I love doing paintings of old barns, and it was time I did an icon – a “See Rock City” barn. For over 80 years, “See Rock City” barns have dotted the rural landscape. Bold lettering on the sides and roofs of country barns on two-lane rural roads invited visitors to a Chattanooga TN tourist attraction, a marketing idea of Rock City founder Garnet Carter. When he retired in 1969, Clark Byers, a self-taught painter and advertising firm employee, had … Read More

“Hand Made: Scratchboard” has just been released, featuring me as a Scratchboard Artist! I am honored to be the focus of a new episode of Hand Made, a series produced by the Tellico Village Network. Host Greg Downs highlights artisans and craftspeople who use their creativity and skills to make unique works of art. The production crew visited me and did a fabulous job of interviewing, filming, and editing this fine video. See if you agree – take a look … Read More

I just learned that I have been awarded 2nd Place in the Active Division of the 2022 Online Show of the International Society of Scratchboard Artists (ISSA)! “I Will Twine,” a 7″ x 5″ Scratchbord™ is my winner. It is such an honor to be selected for this prize in an organization representing scratchboard artists from all around the world. You can view the show on the ISSA website and see the unbelievably amazing scratchboards. My scratchboard “Silly Selfie” is … Read More

“I Will Twine” is a 7″ x 5″ black Scratchbord™ panel. I used the same ball of twine in an earlier painting called “Curious,” with a cat as the focal point. The textures of the twine and the wood in the background were so fun to depict on a scratchboard that I returned to the subject, this time making the twine itself the focal point. I adopted the title for this artwork from the first words of the Carter family … Read More

After working in watercolors for recent months I’ve been anxious to switch over to scratchboarding again. I was inspired to create an image with various stages of the wild thistle plant, so full of a variety of textures. Using Photoshop, I combined a couple of photos I had taken of wild thistle growing near my house. Thistle is a plant which often has several stages of growth showing at once, including spiny flower pods, fully opened flowers, and the delicate … Read More

I’ve created a short video, called “Scratchboard Start to Finish,” to demonstrate my step-by-step progress in creating this 6” x 6” painting “Silly Selfie.” See my initial inspiration, reference photos, tools I used for scratching, tips and techniques, the addition of watercolor and the finishing details. You might recognize this selfie from a photo transfer I demonstrated in my Claybord 101 workshop and video. Recently I was trying to think of something unique and challenging for a new Scratchbord™ painting, … Read More

I love scratchboarding and I love chocolate, so I decided to combine the two in creating How Sweet It Is. I painted a big watercolor of chocolates years ago, Decadence, and it has always ranked among my personal favorite paintings. Even though this is a very very small artwork – just 4.5″ x 3″ – it took forever! The image was created with tiny marks into the black surface, slowly working my way throughout the panel. To be able to … Read More

I just heard that two of my paintings have been accepted to an upcoming biennial exhibition called “No Bigger Than a Breadbox.” There were 384 entries and only 67 have been juried into the show, so I am delighted with the news. My black Scratchbords “Locked In Time”, with color added with inks, and “Eye Of The Tiger” will be featured. (You can see the small size of “Eye Of The Tiger” shown in my hand in the photo). The … Read More